THE FACTORS AFFECTING STUDENTS’ LEVEL OF WILLINGNESS TO COMMUNICATE (WTC) IN AN ENGLISH CLASS AT A PRIVATE JUNIOR HIGH SCHOOL IN SURABAYA

Abstract

This article purposes to find out the level of students’ willingness to communicate (WTC) in an English class at a private junior high school in Surabaya, to explain the factors affecting students’ level of WTC, and to explore students’ attempts or strategies to improve their level of WTC. This article is classified into qualitative research. The subjects of this article are students of junior high. The study focused on students' experiences of the factors and strategies demonstrated by students in class speaking and in front of the class. The data was in the form of the transcription of the interview and observation instrument. The detail information is obtained from interviewing the students. The result shows that the level of students’ WTC in an English class was low. The writer also found several factors that affect students’ level of willingness to communicate (WTC) using English proved by the observation result and interview result, they are self-confidence, communicative competence, learning anxiety, students’ motivation, personality, teacher role, classroom atmosphere, interlocutor, the effect of topics, the effect of task types. It is appropriate that students who have poor self-confidence, lack communicative competence, lack the motivation to speak, and have n elevated level of anxiety are included in the category of having a low level of students’ willingness to communicate. The most of students said that self-confidence affected their level of WTC. The writer found that the students have a variety of strategies such as using technology in language learning and following conversation club. Both of them showed their enthusiasm to speak in the classroom and did all the assignments in the Hybrid learning system. Combining technology and outside activity can improve the student’ WTC.